Quick and Easy Soy Salsa

Quick and Easy Soy Salsa

Ingredients

- Lemon or lime (half)

- 1 tablespoon of lite soy sauce

- Pepper

- Grape tomatoes

- Cilantro

- Green onions

- Extra virgin olive oil

Quarter or half your grape tomatoes

Chop green onions and cilantro

Add lemon or lime juice 

Add soy

Season with pepper and light sea salt (if you wish)

Drizzle with olive oil (not too much)

Season to taste. 

Can be enjoyed with most meal complimenting chicken, seafood or meat or on its own.

Enjoy! Until next time...

Pork Sinigang Made Easy

My dad makes the best sinigang. 

The honeybear was jonesing for my dad's sinigang and asked why don't we make it? So we called up my dad and this post today is a result of our interpretation of what he instructed. 

What is sinigang you ask? Its a Filipino stew made with vegetables, meat or fish with a souring agent usually either guava or tamarind. If you've ever had tom yum soup at a Thai restaurant its sort of in the same family. Its a favorite Filipino stew that has a sour but flavorful taste that is served over rice. 

After talking to dad, honeybear and I headed to the local sprouts store to get produce for the stew. Ideally, it would have been more authentic to go to the asian store and get the vegetables dad instructed us to get...but...oh...the asian mart...was... just....too...far to go tonight. Honeybear and I compromised next time we would go to the asian mart and do the recipe right. I knew though that we could get by making substitutions. 

Some of my substitutions:
Kang Kong is an asian water spinach typically used for this recipe. I substituted baby and regular spinach.

image by survivalfoodplants.com

Sitaw are long green beans (I remember my grandparents growing these in the backyard) I'm sure I would have been able to pick up some at the asian store but I subbed with regular green beans from Sprouts. 

image by busogsarap!

Radish - I used the daikon (which I found at Sprouts) which I think is what I was supposed to use anyway. Daikon is a radish. Don't we learn something new everyday?

Surprisingly there were no eggplant or okra at Sprouts.  Which I was slightly disappointed as I was looking forward to using them for this recipe. We could have went to another store, but being the lazy and hungry home chefs we were we decided to just forego any substitutions for those two. 

I also was hoping to find seedless watermelon at sprouts (as advertised in their weekly) but also bummed out there as none were to be found. Watermelon not for the sinigang but for me. I digress. 

The beauty of this stew is really, there are many different versions and everyone seems to cook it differently but it is still sinigang. What I may use today may not be the way my aunt makes it but its ok. You could add what you like to it. As long as you and your family like what you make, thats all that really matters honey. 

As a kid growing up I never truly appreciated a lot of the homeland dishes my parents fed us (chuck-e-cheese and mickey d's chicken nuggets seemed to be much more palatable as a kid), but now as an adult, I cannot get enough of the veggie-filled filipino dishes of our youth,  which I sense those same sentiments rise true with my brothers as well. Circle of life my friends. Circle of life. 


On to the recipe.
We were cooking for 4 and this will definitely serve a family of 4-5. 


- 2 bunches of spinach (kang kong preferrably) but I used baby and regular spinach
-  bunch of sitaw or long green beans, I used regular green beans
- 3 tomatoes (I used roma)
- 1 asian eggplant (I omitted due to lack of stock)
- bunch of okra  (Omitted due to lack of stock)
- 1 onion
- 1 banana pepper
- 1 medium/long radish/daikon
- 3-4lbs of country boneless spare ribs (cut into pieces)
- 1 lemon
- patis or filipino fish sauce (found in your hopefully-not-too-far-asian-store, or better yet your cupboard)
- 1-2 garlic clove minced
- 1 sliver of ginger finely sliced

Prep:
Washy, washy time. 
Wash and rinse the spinach, the green beans, daikon, tomatoes, banana pepper and other vegetables.

(A tip, I sometimes will soak my spinach or leafy veggies in a bath of cold water and vinegar for a few minutes, then rinse well. hopefully it helps dislodge any nasties. If it doesn't I don't want to know. Denial is a happier place).

Chop, chop...
Once your veggies have been thoroughly cleaned its time to chop. 

Quarter your tomatoes and set aside. 
Quarter your onions
Mince your garlic
Slice your ginger (not really used in this dish but I like them)
Prep your greenbeans by snipping of the ends and halfing the green bean and set aside.
Peel your daikon radish and slice into slices set aside.
You can also juice your whole lemon and set aside. 
if you have okra leave as is and eggplant you can slice the eggplant on a diagonal. 

I leave the banana pepper whole because I just want a trace of heat. 

Chop your country ribs to whatever size you like, I used bite sizes. 
Fill a pitcher with water (I used about 10-15 cups) 

Once your prep is completed the rest is easy. I promise.

Watch my video here for the rest of the story...

Enjoy! Until next time....

Easy, Simple Ribeye Steak

The grill is fired up!


Watch my video here. 

Simple, easy ribeye steak

I have 3 bone in 1 inch thick grass-fed ribeyes. You don't really have to do much with these beauties because the flavor of ribeyes can stand on its own. 



Prep:
Let the ribeyes come to room temperature (at least 45-min - 1hr). 
Pre-heat your oven or grill to high heat. 



Season with garlic salt, salt, pepper on both sides.
Lightly coat with extra virgin olive oil on both sides.

Grill or cook on the stove 4-6 min each side for medium rare or longer per your taste. 

Once cooked to your liking, its important to let the steaks rest for at least 10 minutes so the juices can redistribute back in to the meat and it ensures a juicy, moist flavorful steak. 

Enjoy! Until next time...

Watch my video here. 

Easy, Simple Roasted Chicken

The house smells so lovely. 

Chicken is roasting in the oven and I am a happy bee. 

This is truly one of my favorite recipes because it is so easy and is so delicious!

My simple, easy roasted whole chicken recipe:

1 whole chicken (preferrably organic)

salt (kosher or sea)

black pepper

garlic salt 

optional

goya adobo powder seasoning

This recipe can be tweaked to your favorite seasonings. 

Prep:

To prevent spread of ickies (salmonella etc) wash hands well and have ingredients, pan and foil set aside and set to go. 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place foil on oven pan. 

Remove giblets from inside cavity (throw away)

Wash chicken and place inside stainless steel bowl 

Season generously all sides of chicken and chicken cavity with salt, pepper and garlic salt. 

(Or you can just season with the adobo seasoning - which can be very tasty too)

Once seasoned, place bird on pan lined with foil. 

Take kitchen twine, string or even a rubberband and tie the chickens legs together. This helps with even cooking of the bird, plus its just a nice presentation.

Wash hands well!

Place pan in oven and roast for 15 min. 

Drop down heat to 375 degrees after the first 15 mins and roast for about an hour or an hour and a half  until juices run clear. 

Take out of oven and let this lady bird rest for at least 10 min under foil. 

In the end you should have a lovely, succulent crispy-skinned chicken that will beautifully pair with rice, salad or veggies. It is soo good for a simple recipe you will want to make this any night of the week. 

Enjoy!  Until next time...

 

Watch my simple and easy chicken recipe here